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EDC battery pack

Kim

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Joined
Oct 29, 2019
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I am looking for recommendations for a decent battery pack that I can keep in my car or purse to charge my phone and or tablet. I live in a very rural area and want something to charge if I breakdown, get stuck or what not.

Does this look like a good one or is there better in this price range. Thabks
 
Anker is a very good brand with good customer service. And they are on Amazon. What I do is look for items with at least 4 stars.

In general for powerbanks:
  1. Generally, the 5.8A output is for all 3 USB ports combined, not 5.8A per port. Each port current output will vary based on the device drawing current.
  2. These are USB 2.0 ports which, I believe, limit current output to 2.1A according to manufacturer convention, not the USB spec. According to this, charge current can be 500ma for USB 2.0, or if the data lines are shorted, 1000ma, or more. https://superuser.com/questions/690074/what-is-the-power-output-of-a-usb-port. More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB#USB_2.0
  3. The 22,000mah is NOT the capacity that comes out of the USB port, it's the capacity of the battery before any circuitry converts the 3.7vdc of the battery to 5.0vdc to send to the USB port. Your USB tester (which goes through the USB port) will show you a capacity of about 80% of 22,000mah if the voltage booster has 80% efficiency (which is common).
  4. Capacity varies slightly based on the load you place on it. A load drawing fewer amps will have a bit higher capacity.
  5. Your battery capacity is 2.2AH, but charges at 2.4amps. This charge rate is 1.1C (2.4/2.2) and is way too high for this battery pack. For longer life charge this at 1.2 amps at most. It will take longer but your battery will last longer too, if you want that. To charge at 1.2a find a charger that only outputs 1.2a, the cheaper chargers will do this.
  6. Uh oh, this links to a question on this product shows you must use at least a 2.2a charger. https://www.amazon.com/ask/questions/Tx1B83JG7OF9B9Q/ref=ask_dp_dpmw_al_hza. My Samsung 2014 tablet was like that, it would only charge if the charger gave at least 1.2amps. My newer Samsung tablet allows lower current for charging.
  7. Do you want this to power a USB light? Many battery banks turn off the USB port if current draw is too low and will not power a single white LED light, which draws about 20-25ma. This might be why USB LED light manufacturers are making USB lights with more LED emitters, they will draw enough current to keep the USB port on. Personally I hate this auto-off feature as I prefer single low-current LED lights which run much longer because they draw less current.
* There is usually one LED "emitter" is a single LED chip. But more and more LED chips have multiple emitters. For example an RGB LED has 3 emitters: red, green, blue, and some of them have a 4th emitter on the same chip for pure white.
 
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